There are many such control devices currently on the market. With these control devices it is usual to select a mode such as “menu”, “display”, “sound” or “play” by pressing a digital button. A separate digital button is typically provided for each of the modes. The display means of the prior art devices is normally a flat LCD screen window which is fixed into position with the use of adhesive.
A device of the above general type is known from Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2002-93142, from which FIGS. 5 and 6 herein are taken. In such devices, the display window comprises a frame carrying a window portion that has to be fixed to the device body by adhesive. With increasing miniaturization, and having only the narrow frame portion to which adhesive can be applied, it becomes increasing difficult to properly secure the window. As such, the window becomes prone to be lifted up and finally detached from the device body after extended use. Furthermore, the provision of a set of dedicated mode buttons, as seen in FIG. 6, for the various functions hinders miniaturization, requires a large number of components and hence longer assembly time, as well as making operation more complicated for the user. According to a related art, even the alternative of a common mode selection button that is repeatedly pressed to cycle through a list of modes, also disadvantageously requires the user to pay attention to the display so as to know the current mode selected. Hence, operation of such devices is overly complicated, their assembly in manufacture is fiddly and time-consuming, while their structure is vulnerable to breakage.
It is thus an object of the present invention to make improvements in the prior art devices that address or at least alleviate some of the above problems and/or to provide a useful alternative to known devices.